Castle looking ESC coming to hobbyking

[thzero]

Originally Posted by Pdelcast

BUT -- Hobbyking does business in both the USA and Hong Kong.

At least now they do since they have 'store presence' in the States.

[himalaya]

Originally Posted by Pdelcast

BUT -- Hobbyking does business in both the USA and Hong Kong.

HobbyKing locates in Hong Kong but does NOT ship to Hong Kong and China. And they rarely manufacture anyting. This may make it harder for the Chinese laws to work on the products they sell. Looks like pressing them by CC from US side has more likelihood to win.

[simplechamp]

I think these are the production model of the ESCs referenced in the first post. They changed the color scheme but the overall design looks identical to the original pics. I won't jump to conclusions before seeing the internals and programming, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if they are clones of the Phoenix. Especially since HK says an HV version is coming soon.

[Unsullied_Spy]

Originally Posted by simplechamp

I think these are the production model of the ESCs referenced in the first post. They changed the color scheme but the overall design looks identical to the original pics. I won't jump to conclusions before seeing the internals and programming, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if they are clones of the Phoenix. Especially since HK says an HV version is coming soon.

Searching through some old posts on another forum someone linked to that ESC, because they had used it and were suggesting someone buy it. They are in stock, shipping, and people are linking to it. I take it there's really nothing that can be done except try to educate people about what it really is?

O well CC is still best with products and especially service!
I had only issues with HK products and service!
No more Chinese crap fake, clones whatever they are selling!

But will their presence in the US force them to become a more legitimate company or will they handle the orders that are questionable abroad and claim that they have no control over their affiliate and try to say its independently ran to try to keep them from being looked at by federal regulators or equivalent for the purposes of this issue. I say that someone of importance needs to get them on record and show by their claim that both facilities are ran by the same person or equivalent because this is what it would come down to in a US court of law.

If they've been violating patents and such as alleged by traxxas corp then I'd be surprised if they weren't being looked at because one would think traxxas wouldn't be sitting around on this....................

[TexasSP]

It's what's on the inside that counts anyway. Didn't anyone ever pay attention to their mom?

I see like this:

Castle makes a twinkie. It's a beautiful yellow cake with cream filled goodness.

These Chinese guys make a what looks a lot like Castle's twinkie, except instead of cream filled goodness is ash from burnt cow crap.

I guess none of this really matters. Apparently, for those that buy the Hobby King electronic products, especially look alike speed controllers, are getting products that do not work, or will not work for very long. Therefore, normal market forces will prevale, and the consumer will naturally stop buying the Chinese products that bring such great disappointment.

CC rules.......

Dennis

[padrino]

Originally Posted by BigGrump

I guess none of this really matters. Apparently, for those that buy the Hobby King electronic products, especially look alike speed controllers, are getting products that do not work, or will not work for very long. Therefore, normal market forces will prevale, and the consumer will naturally stop buying the Chinese products that bring such great disappointment.

CC rules.......

Dennis

It's a question of value vs. quality/longevity. I work with a bunch of guys that use hobby king gear and toss out things once and a while but the overall out of pocket costs are still quite low and although not as crisp as some of my CC gear they have fun and enjoy it all the same.

With Hobby King's growth I see the market forces prevailing as you state, there is enough of a volume to keep them and CC alive, personally I have used but never purchased a HK ESC myself but many have and many will continue to do so.

[Tat2]

Originally Posted by padrino

With Hobby King's growth I see the market forces prevailing as you state, there is enough of a volume to keep them and CC alive.

And that somehow makes what they're doing OK? Whether that's true or not is beside the point.

[padrino]

Originally Posted by Tat2

And that somehow makes what they're doing OK? Whether that's true or not is beside the point.

Of course not, I was commenting on Dennis post about market forces correcting things, not whether or not what they are doing is wrong.

[MonsterMaxx]

OMG, you guys act all surprised when a Chinese company rips off American engineering. It's been going on for decades.

Castle can whip up their lawyers and spend a bunch of money. Might even be worth it to stop them with the ITC (US customs, can stop it at the border, but no civil claims.) They will not get a penny out of HobbyKing, HobbyCity or whatever they have changed their name too now to duck legal matters.

Deans stopped them, got to hand it to them for that, but I have to wonder how much it raised the cost of Deans connectors to do so.

Fact is US/China trade relations are totally stacked against American companies and in favor of China. An American firm can NOT get money out of a Chinese company. But if a Chinese company sues an American company in China and wins (like that's a big surprise in Kangraoo Court) the US/China trade agreement says that that judgement is claimable against the American company.

How do I know this? Because I worked for an American company who went thru this very thing. They were a major supplier of equipment on the Three Gorges project. There were huge rewards for finishing the job early. Because of the company I worked for the TGP was finished nearly 5 years ahead of schedule. Huge rewards. So China manufactured an accident, sued in Chinese court, won of course and came over here and basically foreclosed on the American company. Forced them into bankruptcy just to keep China from taking the entire company, the owners home, cars, chickens and clothing (yes, all those items and more were on the Chinese notice.) Ridiculous.

As to Hobbyking, they have been ripping off other firms and their customers since they first started.

Good luck Castle, my bet is you are wasting your time and money. Though you might have the pockets ($50-100k) to go thru the ITC and stop them from coming into the US thru the hobbyking channel (they'll just go around it), you'll never get a penny from Hobbyking.

I remember looking thru Integy's product line a number of years back, nearly every product they had was a rip off. No one cared, peeps bought the cheep stuff.

Until the laws are changed, small American business are screwed. Then again, even Microsoft gets screwed by China rip offs. What can we do when the entire Chinese govt is against us and US politicians are in their pockets.

Doubt any one was really surprised. Some people were pretty peed off though.

Anyway Chinese economy is half based on illegal copying of other's products/ideas.

Also Hobbyking is back at selling Deans style connectors. Slightly tweaked but really the same thing. Doubt anyone will ever stop them. Hell they have even copied TRX and EC type connectors.

The fact they made a line of their ESC's look very similar to Castle ones I doubt it is going to fool many people that they are pretty much the same thing or of similar quality. Not in this day and age. And if some people think that they are getting pretty much the same thing they will probably regret it sooner rather than later.

I've heard good things about these ESCs though in E-Bikes. I'm considering buying one, the customer service might be better than Castles CS too.


- A customer who's already waiting for 2,5 months for his ESC to get repaired.

[MonsterMaxx]

LOL. I just remembered how I met Mike.

We were at a race in the northeast and he was parked near me.
Mike was all proud of his new RacerX looking blue suspension. Yes folks, Mike himself bought the cheep Chinese ripoff of Unlimited Engineering's well designed and unique RacerX suspension.
I took one look at it and said: "you'll bend it here, here and here". He laughed, didn't believe me and said something like "yea, but for the price I paid I could buy several for one of UE's".

Now remember, this is the same suspension that was such a knockoff of our RacerX that they actually used MY knuckles in their print advertising - yea, I know my own machining marks.

After the first qualifier Mike came back and said "Wow, you were right, it bent right here." He DNF'd by the way due to the failure of the Integy 'RacerX'

We laughed and struck op a conversation.

So you see fellas, even someone like Mike will buy the knockoff when it's cheep.